Collaborative Research: Improving Performance and Retention of Engineering Graduate Students through Motivation and Identity Formation

合作研究：通过动机和身份形成提高工程研究生的表现和保留率

• 批准号: 1535453
• 负责人: Adam Kirn
• 金额: $ 24.95万
• 依托单位: Board of Regents, NSHE, obo University of Nevada, Reno
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-09-01 至 2020-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1535453&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Improving; Performance; Retention

This work is supported by the EHR Core Research (ECR) program. The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field. Investments are made in critical areas that are essential, broad and enduring: STEM learning and STEM learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development. The program supports the accumulation of robust evidence to inform efforts to understand, build theory to explain, and suggest intervention and innovations to address persistent challenges in STEM interest, education, learning and participation. This ECR project intends to understand how doctoral engineering student experiences influence identity formation and motivation and therefore affect retention, persistence and productivity. While this has been widely studied at the undergraduate level, graduate-level studies are less available. Engineering is the least studied fields in graduate education, and if studied, is often combined with other STEM fields, despite unique disciplinary cultures. Engineering culture traditionally values industry-driven careers over academically-driven careers. The focus on career preparation and industry-relevant experiences can also lead to limited development of research-oriented skills and future goals by engineering students. Students coming in with limited definitions of research, particularly research in an engineering context, can experience a mismatch between their identities, their future goals and expectations for them as researchers. The proposed work could benefit engineering graduate students who may be at risk of abandoning their educational pursuits in engineering. Increasing retention of talented individuals in graduate engineering programs increases the number of individuals who can train the new graduates needed to solve the next generation of engineering problems. Unique approaches to problems solved by engineers are essential as growing global competition and increased emphasis on new technology drive the need for creative engineers. A goal of the study is to shape graduate education best practices for recruitment, retention, and training in engineering, particularly for doctoral students in engineering, but elements of this work will be transferable to other populations within graduate education. Through a mixed methods study of graduate student motivational goal setting and identity formation the following research questions will be answered: 1. What are the identity and motivation profiles of engineering doctoral students, which are based on previous academic and research experiences in STEM? 2. How does the STEM community influence identity formation and motivational goal setting processes of engineering doctoral students? 3. How do these processes related to identity formation and motivation influence engineering graduate student retention, productivity, and pursuit of doctoral level engineering careers? In the initial quantitative phase, development, administration, and analysis of a survey to assess the experiences of a nationally-representative sample of currently-enrolled engineering graduate students will be completed. Data will be analyzed using advanced clustering techniques to create attitudinal profiles that reflect graduate students' identity and motivation. To maximize the sample size, students will be recruited through engineering societies and targeted solicitations to graduate engineering programs. In the qualitative second phase up to 50 students of varying attitudinal profiles will be selected to study the influence of graduate experiences on identity development and motivational goal setting. Using a phenomenological lens, students will be interviewed about their experiences in graduate engineering education. Through the mixed-methods approach, the interactions of students' identities and motivation will be captured and how academic experiences influence these profiles will be determined. Results can be used to inform programmatic decisions in graduate programs and facilitate interventions that promote motivation and identity development.

这项工作得到了EHR核心研究（ECR）计划的支持。 ECR计划强调了基本的STEM教育研究，该研究在该领域产生了基础知识。 投资是在重要，广泛和持久的关键领域进行的：STEM学习和STEM学习环境，扩大参与STEM以及STEM劳动力的发展。 该计划支持积累强大的证据，以告知努力，以理解，建立理论来解释并提出干预和创新，以应对STEM兴趣，教育，学习和参与方面的持续挑战。 该ECR项目旨在了解博士学位学生如何影响身份形成和动力，从而影响保留，持久性和生产力。 尽管在本科水平上对此进行了广泛的研究，但研究生水平的研究却较少。 工程学是研究生教育中研究最少的领域，如果研究了，尽管有独特的纪律文化，但经常与其他STEM领域相结合。传统上，工程文化重视以行业为导向的职业而不是学术驱动的职业。对职业准备和与行业相关的经验的关注也可以通过工程专业的学生来导致研究面向研究的技能和未来目标的有限发展。对研究的定义有限，尤其是在工程背景下的研究，他们的身份，未来的目标和对他们作为研究人员的期望之间的不匹配。 拟议的工作可能会使可能有可能放弃工程学的教育的风险有益于工程研究生。在研究生工程课程中，有才华的人的保留率增加会增加可以培训解决下一代工程问题所需的新毕业生的个人数量。工程师解决的独特方法是必不可少的，因为日益增长的全球竞争以及对新技术的越来越重视推动了创意工程师的需求。该研究的目的是塑造研究生教育的最佳实践，用于招聘，保留和工程学的培训，特别是对于工程学的博士生，但这项工作的元素可以转移到研究生教育中的其他人群中。通过对研究生动机目标设定和身份形成的混合方法研究，将回答以下研究问题：1。工程博士生学生的身份和动机概况是什么？ 2. STEM社区如何影响身份形成和动机目标学生的动机设定过程？ 3.这些与身份形成和动机有关的过程如何影响工程研究生的保留率，生产力以及对博士水平工程职业的追求？ 在最初的定量阶段，开发，管理和分析调查中，将完成当前票房工程研究生的全国代表性样本的经验。将使用高级聚类技术对数据进行分析，以创建反映研究生身份和动机的态度概况。为了最大程度地提高样本量，将通过工程社会招募学生，并有针对性的征求研究生工程课程。 在定性的第二阶段中，将选择多达50名不同态度概况的学生，以研究研究生体验对身份发展和动机目标设定的影响。使用现象学镜头，将对学生在研究生工程教育方面的经历进行采访。通过混合方法方法，将捕获学生身份和动机的互动，以及学术经验如何影响这些概况。结果可用于为研究生课程中的程序决策提供信息，并促进促进动力和身份发展的干预措施。